Clemons v. City of Los Angeles
California Supreme Court
36 Cal. 2d 95, 222 P.2d 439 (1950)
- Written by Tanya Munson, JD
Facts
Clemons (plaintiff) purchased property containing a bungalow court of nine units in Los Angeles. The property was subject to the Los Angeles municipal code. The municipal code provided that no lot held under separate ownership and used for dwelling purposes may be reduced to any size less than 5,000 square feet. The code sought to prevent excessive subdivision because such a breakup of property tends to lead to overcrowding, slum-like living conditions, and other hazards. Despite this restriction, Clemons subdivided the property into nine parcels, each with a bungalow and averaging 925 square feet in size. Clemons conveyed eight of the parcels to individuals. The City of Los Angeles (defendant) discovered Clemons’s violation of the ordinance and threatened him with arrest and prosecution. In turn, Clemons filed suit seeking declaratory and injunctive relief from the enforcement of the ordinance against him on the grounds that it exceeded the scope of the exercise of the police power and deprived him of property in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The trial court upheld the ordinance. Clemons appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Spence, J.)
Dissent (Carter, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
